Canadian EI claims dropped 13.3 per cent year-to-year in September

The number of Canadians no longer claiming employment insurance is dropping.

In Sept. 2018, almost half a million fewer eligible Canadians received employment insurance, a drop of 3.1 per cent. Year-to-date the number of regular employment insurance beneficiaries dropped 13.1, according to Statistics Canada.

Overall, the number of beneficiaries dropped in seven out of 10 provinces, with the largest declines in Alberta (8.5 per cent) and British Columbia (8.3 per cent). The province with the third-highest drop was Saskatchewan with a decline of 4.9 per cent.

These figures speak to the strength of Canada’s economy in general and the economy of western Canada specifically. True, some of the declines coincided with the expiration of a temporary EI measure that entitled all eligible workers for five weeks of additional assurance and some workers for up to 20 weeks of additional insurance. It is also the case that not all individuals, who are off EI have found employment.

But a look at various sectors reveals that the number of EI beneficiaries has declined across all 10 broad occupational groups, with the biggest drops taking place in sales and services as well as health (down both 18.9 per cent), followed by management(down 16.8 per cent); business, finance and administration (down 16.6) and natural applied sciences (down 16).

In short, fewer workers in both high-paying and low-paying sectors claimed EI.